Public opinion polarization on immigration in Italy: the role of traditional and digital news media practices

ABSTRACT

Public opinion polarization on immigration can hinder social cohesion, integration policies and economic growth. Political campaigns and partisan news media systems have long been investigated in terms of potential drivers of mass polarization, often through a focus on one news media. Utilizing survey data collected by the Pew Research Center, the purpose of the present study is twofold: first, to provide insight into the state of polarization of the Italian public on immigrants-related issues during the campaign for 2018 General Elections, that is, in a context of increasing struggle on immigration between political elites and partisan news media; second, to analyze whether and how the frequency of use of traditional and digital news media and/or the political similarity of (online and offline) information networks have affected the probability of Italian citizens having polarized opinions on immigration. This study shows no significant divergences in the Italian public opinion toward extreme positions, but provide evidence of one-side extremism and alignment along two irreconcilable views. Furthermore, findings indicate deep differences in the effects of traditional and digital news media practices on individuals’ extreme and aligned positions on immigration. When various news media are considered, the effect of television is always the more robust.

KEYWORDS:

• Hybrid media system
• news media
• echo-chambers
• immigration
• political polarization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ The questionnaire, the codebook and the original dataset that support the findings of the present analysis are available, upon registration on the Pew Research Center’s website, and in agreement with Pew’s use policy, at https://www.pewresearch.org/global/dataset/fall-2017-media-and-politics-in-western-europe-survey-data/. The countries involved in the Pew survey are Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

² The original questions numbered Q28a, Q29a, Q30a (Pew Research Center, 2017).

³ The original questions numbered Q28b, Q29b, Q30b (Pew Research Center, 2017).

⁴ Recorded through the original questions numbered Q28a, Q29a, and Q30a (Pew Research Center, 2017). The responses “Neither”, “Don’t know” and “Refused” have been classified as “no views”.

⁵ The original questions numbered Q6a, Q6b, Q6c, Q6d, Q14 (Pew Research Center, 2017). See also Table A1 in the Appendix.

⁶ The original question numbered Q17 (Pew Research Center, 2017, Table A1).

⁷ The original question numbered Q19 (Pew Research Center, 2017, Table A1).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Italian Ministry of Research and University under the PRIN research program (“National Projects of Relevant Interest,” 2017) [grant number: 20175HFEB3]; under the “Dipartimenti di Eccellenza” Program (2018–2022), Department of Economics and Business, University of Sassari.